The present invention relates, in general, to sensing transducers and, more particularly, to a sensing transducer using a Schottky junction as a sensing element.
Sensing transducers are commonly used to sense pressure. Prior pressure transducers typically suffer from an output voltage so low that some type of amplification of the transducer output is required prior to interfacing the transducer with other electronics, such as a microcontroller, for signal processing. For example, piezoresistors used for pressure sensing typically exhibit a low signal amplitude that needs compensation and amplification prior to further signal processing. However, amplification typically introduces undesirable noise into a transducer's output signal and increases the total cost of the pressure sensing application due to the additional electronics required. Accordingly, it is desirable to have a pressure transducer that does not require amplification of its output signal prior to signal processing and that is less expensive to produce than prior pressure transducers.